But though all
this be true, the misfortune itself gave to modern history one of its
most harrowing chapters.
The population of Ireland in 1845 is supposed to have been nearly nine
millions. The manufactures were small, and the people depended on the
potato crop, and had no other resource in time of scarcity. For several
years the potato yield had been abundant, the country was comparatively
prosperous, and the temperance movement led by Father Mathew promised a
happier future. A great harvest was expected in 1845, but almost at a
single stroke this expectation was blasted; for although the crop was
large the greater part of it was destroyed in the ground, and the
potatoes that were gathered "rotted in pit and storehouse." The farmers
taxed all their means and energies to secure even a larger crop in 1846,
but the blight of that year was even more fatal than the last. To
pinching want was added discouragement, and the people sat in the shadow
of a frightful catastrophe. In vain the British Government was called
upon to give relief through Parliament, until, in the autumn of 1846,
parliamentary authority was obtained to grant baronial loans.
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